The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-08-26
The Young Lady

cd a long gradual grade. You're
atop of the Rocky Mountains now,
ma'am."
Emily Vaughn looked to left and tC
right, and was conscious of a feeling Of
disappointment She had pictured the
top OF the Rocky Mountains as some
thing quite different from this. Here
were no frowning heights or sudden
CULTS, only a wide-rolling plateau, some
distant peaks which did no look very
high, and far ahead a glimpse of lower
levels running down into plains. It
seemed hardly worth while to have
come so far for 50 little.
Realty" she said. But where are
the mountains? They don't look nearly
so high as they did ycsterday!'
Naturally, ma'am," responded the
engineer; things don't appear so high
when you're as high as they are. We're
atop, you know"
'But there's no look-off, no wonder
full distance, as from the top of Mt.
Washington. l confess l am disap-
pointed"
Its kind of queer" said John Scott,
with a dry chuckIe, chow folks from
the East keep abiding to that ere
little Hill as if it were the standard of
measurement. We don'ttbink so much
of it this way. Why, ma'am, you're
about 1000 feet higher at this minute
than if you was at the top of that little
shuck Of a Mt. Washington that they
all think so much Of"
Miss Vaughn smiled, but she expert
enced a shock nevertheless. The New
England mind does not easily accus-
tom itself to hearing it's sacred noun
tain thus lightly spoken against.
Have you eve seen Mt, Washington"
she asked.
'Oh, bless you, yes!" replied John
Scott, cheerfully. Il was raised over
to Fryeburg, and grew up alongside of
it. l thought it was a pretty big con-
Germ when / was a boy, but now" He
closed the sentence with a short, ex-
pressive laugh.
Miss Vaughn changed the subject.
She was not offended. She had grown
to like this rongh, good-natured en-
gineer in the course of the three-days'
journey, during which, favored as a
relative of n of the directors of the
road, she had several times been priVi-
legged to ride, as now. in the engi-
neer's cab for a better view of the
country.
Have you been long on this roadP"
she asked.
Pretty near ever since it opened.
! run the third through train that came
out from Chicago, and / havn't been
offthe line since, Winter or Summer,
except for three months when / was
laid up with a broken Leg
This must look very different in
Winter" said Miss Vaughn, noting
the t~reeless distances, and the SHOWS
still glinting on the higher peaks to the
left.
You may believe it doesl That first
year, when the snow sheds wasn't
built, it wa terrible. | was running
that train that stuck in the snow seven
days, perhaps you'll remember about
i; i was in all the papers. / sha'n't
lever forget tsl hss rot II ] live to be as
old as my grandfather. and he didn't
die till he was ninety odd
Tell me aboutit " said Miss Vaughn.
persuasively, setting herself on the
high side bench Of the cab, with that
air Of attention which is so n
ticing to the story teller; amusements
r few and far between in the long
monotony Of the overland journey to
California; besides which. Miss Vaughn
dearly loved a story.
There amt much to tell" said
John Scott with something OF the
feeling which prompts the young
vocalist to complain Of hoarseness. II
amt any hand at telling things. either. =
Then, won BY Miss vaughn's appeal
ing eyes, be continued:
We ran al fair and on time It'll we
was about 200 miles beyond Omaha.
Then the snow began. 1t didn't seem
much At first The women-folk in the
train rather liked It. They an crowded
TO the windows 20 see. and the children
hurrshed Anything seemed a pleas
ant change after the sagebrush, | sup
pose. But a it went on coming, and
kne nrists grew deep and the cars had
to run slow, the older ones began to
look serious, and ! can tell yon that we
who had charge 81 the train felt SO.
We was just between two cf the
feeding stations, and we put on all tho
steam we could, hoping to push through
70 where provisions could be got hi ii